Back on the road

6:01 p.m. Today's project was to return home safely from Fresno. Steve and I had made the 5 1/2 hour trip there to assist our youngest son Steven with his financial aid at the Christian university he attends, Fresno Pacific, and to help him out with repairs to his Jeep.

Thursday night, we went out with Steven and his friend Angela, and returned home for a good night's sleep on the Aerobed. On Friday, we had a few small outings in town and settled back in the apartment to clean up (literally) and address the handling of Steven's speeding ticket. "Let all things be done decently and in order," the Apostle Paul said in I Corinthians 14:40, so his dad and I put Steven's kitchen in order pretty quickly.

John, a friend of Steven's from church, was due at 8 a.m. this morning to remove the power steering pump, so Steven could get an exchange refund on the new part, due to arrive on the Kragens truck at 10:00. As soon as my debit card was credited, Steve and I were planning to hit the road. We were to arise at 7:00 to have our devotions and breakfast.

But last night, Steve had struggles with his C-pap machine, and kept moving it around on his face, causing very loud "whooshing" sounds. The Lord allowed me to go back to sleep each time, in gracious answer to my prayers. At 6 a.m, however, Steve sat up and began tearing off the mask, seeming to be utterly disoriented, as he wakes up even at home some days. My sleep was gone at that point, so I asked him to go ahead and go out to the kitchen table, have his meds and supplements, eat his banana and begin his devotions while I caught a few more winks.

When I went out to the kitchen a while later, I looked in vain for my vitamins. He had taken mine, too! The two sets of supplements were placed on separate napkins next to each of our Bibles like I place them at home. I had no extras, because we were to leave for home.

This was not a good prospect for the long, boring drive home! Since Steve can no longer drive, we can't switch drivers. I found one Shaklee Vitalea multivitamin, posted Psalm 94:17 on Facebook, drank three cups of coffee, and lay down for about 15 minutes awaiting the return of our son and my debit card.

The verse I posted said, "Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul would soon have settled in silence." Pretty apropos for a morning of desperate tiredness; I was actually in too dangerous a condition for driving.

Since I had jolted myself awake with all the caffeine, I decided we might as well take advantage of it. We kissed Steven goodbye, got gas, and I posted a request for my friends to pray us home. Three hours later, in a huge rest area in Lebec, just before entering the Grapevine, I checked in on Facebook and several had pledged to pray. (By the way, the bottle of "5-Hour Energy" I drank only lasted an hour!) My buddy DeAnna sent me a picture message on my cellphone of the group up at Shaver Lake we had hoped to be part of. It made for perfect timing to request prayer from them, too! I fixed a quick lunch for us and napped for about 30 minutes in the back seat.

I am so grateful to the Lord that Steven's car is repaired and he can attend classes on Monday. We made it home safely, too. The three of us are "back on the road" with the Lord, by His kindness and grace.

And I'll be going to bed early tonight!